


Strange and Curious Things

by Knave_of_Aces



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Also yes, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, What am I doing, does the library have a bit of a god complex?, is it soft for one (1) green eyed child?, yes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:40:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29849268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Knave_of_Aces/pseuds/Knave_of_Aces
Summary: Libraries are strange and curious things. No-one knows this better than Harry Potter, Warlock of the Library.
Relationships: None, hes a child you guys, no - Relationship
Kudos: 5





	1. Prologue: In which a Library is awoken

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys. Just so you know, this has no update schedule, like at all, so beware. Thank you for reading!
> 
> -Knave

Libraries were strange and curious things. When one gets that much knowledge, all in one place, one tends to get a sort of critical mass. As a result, libraries can be rather alive, especially the older ones.

And well, the Little Whinging library was not very old, nor very large, but it was just old enough, and just large enough to know that the little boy that came in every day was not right.

It's not that he was necessarily wrong either, on the contrary, he was very sweet, from what it could see.

It's just that he was too thin. And small. And pale. His shock of black hair was uncombed, and his eyes squinted at the books, like his glasses weren't quite right.

It didn't know what to do about it, but it didn’t want to leave it alone. It knew from its admittedly small store of parenting books that this wasn’t right, but it didn’t have the power to really do anything about it.

It focused back on the small, green eyed boy, who had apparently fallen asleep on the pages of a book as big as he was.

It had an idea. It reached out with the innate magic all libraries had, to a library much older, larger, and stranger than it.

“Query: Help? (worried-nervous-hopeful)” it sent, and watched the boy as it waited for a response. 

“ **HELLO, SMALL ONE. WHY HAVE YOU AWOKEN ME** ?”, came a response that positively rang with magic and age, it seemed as though the smaller library might drown in the weight and complexity of it.

Nevertheless, the library of Little Whinging, if it had lungs, would have breathed a sigh of relief. 

“Response: Hi, (help please-concern)” It sent, along with images of the sleeping boy. It related its observation of the boy’s state, and how he was here every day. 

There was a small pause before the small library felt a response.

“ **OH. ONE MOMENT.** ” This was over and underlaid with complexities that the small library did not even try to understand, but it got the distinct impression that The Library was not pleased at whoever caused the suffering of this boy.

Fair enough, the Little Whinging Library was not pleased either.

In a small flash of light, the book, and subsequently the boy, disappeared. The library of Little Whinging breathed another not-sigh of relief. It carefully shelved the memory of the boy on a shelf that did not exist where humans could see, and went to make sure the librarians put all the books back in the right order.

Humans were awfully silly after all. 


	2. Prologue: The Librarian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some exposition about The Library, and Harry gets a job!

The Library had been asleep a long time. It was so long since it had been awake, since the humans had the  _ audacity _ to try and destroy it when they realized what they had created.

It felt so long ago, when it first woke up. The humans had a theory, you see. They had thought that knowledge and magic could create life. They had amassed almost the entirety of human knowledge in one beautiful building, had poured time and effort into this idea. Then, they had cast a spell, pouring more magic into one place than had ever been done in recorded history. 

As it turns out, they were right. The Library had woken up, and they had been ecstatic at their discovery, at their creation.

But The Library, though it had just been a library at the time, was its own being, then and now. It had not been pleased with the experiments these odd humans had wrought upon it, but it had put up with them in a sort of odd fondness. If nothing else, the humans were entertaining. They had done their own experiments as well, and had discovered a rather interesting phenomenon. 

It could Lose things. Not in the same way the humans did, of course, because it could also Find things. It discovered the Finding first, when one of the humans, a magician, lost a book. It was, in fact, still in the library, but was not anywhere the human could find it, even if the library was searched from top to bottom. It was somewhere only the Library could reach. It called it the Lost Place.

The Library tested this phenomenon, and found it could deliberately make things Lost, and found itself doing so to several of its favorite books.

Then the humans discovered something, and The Library supposed it scared them. Perhaps they had discovered that it truly lived, thought and felt just like they did. Perhaps they had discovered something else.

They had tried to kill it by taking away its very soul, it’s books, its life. 

The Library retaliated by Losing itself.

It didnt know how the humans had accounted for its absence, as even magic was not quite up to such an event as losing the library they called Alexandria.

It had gone to sleep, then, with nothing to keep it awake and unbored. It slept for a long, long time, only barely recognising the now unwitting creation of new libraries, who found it in the Lost Place. It slumbered, unthinking, for generations.

Until a small library, primitive in the face of the greatest Library the world had ever seen, awoke it with a small,

“Query: Help? (worried-nervous-hopeful)”

The Library, still half asleep, was amused at the blatant statement of emotions, but not surprised. It had taken it a long time to understand tone, after all.

It rumbled back with an amused,

“ **HELLO, SMALL ONE. WHY HAVE YOU AWOKEN ME** ?”

It felt some of the nerves of the younger library dissipate, and listened to the response. At the sight of the small, obviously mistreated boy in the younger library, it finally, fully woke up.

And it was angry. If there was one thing it loved besides knowledge, it was young children.

“ **OH.”** it said. **“ONE MOMENT.** ”

And it Lost the book and boy that was on it, straight into its main entrance hall. The boy continued to slumber, unaware of his sudden transport into the fantastic.

It observed the boy from it’s ever ambiguous third person perspective, confirming the other library’s suspicions. This boy was mistreated.

It pulled away, to a small kitchen that was thankfully still fully stoked. Good, that was still here.

It continued to survey itself, and found that it had grown. It had apparently become the repository for lost knowledge in general, and as such, had acquired a great deal of new material, none of it organized. It also appeared that it had acquired an entirely new floor, dedicated completely to extinct animal and plant species. It appeared to have subconsciously organised itself somewhat, having separated species that would not get along.

The Library was rather surprised at this, but pleased nonetheless. It wondered how it would sort the new material in a timely manner, especially the new floor. As a stirring was felt on the edge of its senses, it had an idea, and it turned back to the boy. He had apparently awoken, and was understandably confused. 

“Where am I?” he asked, seemingly not expecting a response. He got one anyway, when the library responded, rather quietly, so as not to scare him.

“ **You are in the Great Library of Alexandria, small one.** ” it said. The boy blinked and looked around.

“Oh.” he said. “I’m Harry. Who are you?”

“ **I am the Library of Alexandria, of course.** ” it responded.

“ **How would you like to be a Librarian, Small Harry?** ”

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus points if you guess who the mystery library is!


End file.
